


Whatever Happens the Road leads back to You(Temporary Hiatus)

by Azureal1996



Category: One Piece
Genre: ASL Brothers, Alive Thatch (One Piece), Angst, F/F, F/M, Fix it AU, M/M, Multi, POV Multiple, Portgas D. Ace Lives, Trans Character, actually almost no one dies, asl brothers reunited, completely self indulgent writer insert, cursing, pretty sure blackbeard is the only one whos gonna die
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-12-12
Packaged: 2021-01-20 21:20:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21288341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azureal1996/pseuds/Azureal1996
Summary: All Jason and Lea wanted was to find the revolutionaries.Instead, they got shipwrecked and separated, both ending up in very different locations.*NOT ABANDONED JUST ON HIATUS BECAUSE OF LIFE updated 08/8/20*
Relationships: Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco/Original Character(s), Nami/Nefertari Vivi, Sabo/Original Character
Comments: 9
Kudos: 25





	1. Just my Luck

**Author's Note:**

> This fic started as a joke for my brother and quickly snowballed into something way bigger than intended. It's a completely self-indulgent self-insert fic, with the two main original characters being heavily based off my brother and I. It should be a fun adventure and if you join I hope you enjoy the ride.

The smell of old books and sea salt drifted in the air as a brown haired boy stirred in his makeshift bed. Warmth, he felt like he hadn’t experienced true warmth in ages and nestled further into the bed. He didn’t recognize the smell of the blankets, but he could tell that the bed wasn’t used very often, the blankets still felt new. Cuddled up like a burrito, the boy started to wonder where he was. His brain was having a hard time remembering anything at the moment. 

With sleep still numbing his mind, the boy peeked his head outside the covers to take in his surroundings. He was obviously on a ship since everything that wasn’t nailed down swayed with the movement of the waves. The room was small, but cram packed with enclosed bookshelves on every wall and paperwork was neatly stacked on a desk in the corner of the room, held down by a paperweight bird. Overall, the room was kept pretty neat. 

Looking closer to his bed, the boy noticed a small temporary table had been set up. There were two glasses: one with water and another with a liquid that appeared to be milk. Next to the glasses was a small bowl of fruit containing some bananas, oranges and a variety of other fruits that he didn’t recognize at all. His stomach started to growl, its been a while since he ate anything. The boy slowly sat up, still keeping himself wrapped in his cocoon of blankies and eyed the glass of water. With a glare that could melt the sun, the boy tried to decide if it was worth drinking the water. Who knew what kind of ship he was on; it could be poisoned. A few minutes of pondering and a growing thirst, the boy just figured if he was going to die anyway, he might as well quicken the process. The water was gone in a matter of seconds, apparently he was more parched than he thought. On the Brightside, at least it didn’t taste poisoned. After finishing off both the water and what was most definitely milk, which was quite frankly disgusting, the boy grabbed an orange and started peeling it. 

As he peeled the fruit, the smell of sweet citrus hit his nose and his mouth started to water. The smell of the orange brought little tears to the boys eyes, he hadn’t tasted something so delicious in ages and loved the smell of fruit. After what felt like an eternity, the orange was finally peeled and the boy eagerly ate it all. While his stomach was far from full, he was happy to have something in his belly. Out of habit, the boy started grabbing all the fruit, “Wow, I really hit the jackpot. I’m sure that Lea would love these…” 

The boy froze as he reached for the last mystery fruit he could shove in his pockets. 

Lea. 

His sister. 

Holy shit. Fuck! 

The boy jumped out of bed, keeping the fruit in his pockets. Lea wasn’t anywhere in the room, maybe she was on the ship too, in a different room? He had to think positively. What the fuck was he supposed to do if she wasn’t here. Oh gods, what if this was a pirate ship. As quietly as he could, the boy got out of bed and rescanned the room to look for anything to protect himself. He normally carried a small arsenal of weapons on him: a sword, his trusty daggers from his sister, some homemade bombs and a gun that they were lucky enough to steal from a noble one time. Whoever snatched him from the sea must have taken all his weapons. Unfortunately, this room was pretty weaponless and the boy had to make do with a fountain pen he found on the work desk and grabbed a book from the fancy bookshelf. Hopefully the book wouldn’t be missed too much. 

Having gathered the weapons he could find, the boy made his way for the door. Normally, he would have jumped out the nice porthole window that adorned the wall above the bed but in addition to the fact that it was a clear shot right into the icy hell from which he came, his sister could still be aboard this ship. His mind was racing now, Lea better be safe. Leas safety was his number one priority, but he needed to keep his wits about him to make sure that he could get to her in one piece. With a deep breath, he reached for the door as it began to creak open. The boy could smell cooked meat and eggs, which made him wretch since the aroma of cooked food was anything but pleasant and saw a little tuft of what he assumed was blond hair start to appear. Without hesitation the boy dashed forward and slammed the door shut, hearing the plate of food crash to the ground and someone grumble behind the door. His luck fucking sucked, of course he needed to leave as soon as someone came to check on him. The doorknob shook a couple times, someone trying to assure him that everything was fine but he sure as hell didn’t believe that. The male voice that attempted to comfort him stopped and with any luck left for now. 

The boy sighed with relief, but didn’t let his guard down. Quickly, he grabbed his breakfast table and put it under the door knob the prevent someone just barging in. He also grabbed a few more books and shoved them under the door. He didn’t want to completely barricade the door in case he needed to run out of it. Exasperated, the boy ran his shaking fingers through his hair. How the fuck was he supposed to save Lea now? As he ran through possible scenarios in his head, the boy froze as the porthole was opened and a huge ass flaming blue bird flew in the god damn window. The bird perched on the window and stared at the boy, lazy amusement in his eyes. Without thinking, the boy threw one of the books he was holding at the bird which the bastard caught. The bird gracefully lifted off the window and flew to the desk where he laid down the book and to his disbelief transformed into a man. 

“Woah there, these are some pretty rare books that you are throwing around. I spent years finding some of these, could we just talk and leave the books out of this. No one is here to hurt you, yoi” The bird man tried to be comforting, but all the boy could feel was dread. He recognized this man. Before him stood a tall man with dark, almost black eyes and a yellow tuft on his head. The boy would have laughed about him looking slightly like a pineapple if he wasn’t horrified by the mark that adorned the mans chest, the mark of the Whitebeard pirates. All that, in addition to his bird form meant that this was none other than Whitebeards 1st division commander. Lea always tried to teach him their names, but all he could remember were his stupid nicknames for them. His luck had always been shitty, but this was probably one of the worst situations he had ever been in. 

There was no time to think, the boy promptly ignored Mr. Pineapple head and threw another book at him, this time imbued with his haki which the man promptly tried to catch and was surprised when it hit him harder than the last one. In his few precious seconds, the boy ran to the door and shoved the table away from the door and dislodged all the books with his feet. Chucking a couple more haki books for good measure to slow down his pursuer, he turned and opened the door hoping that the coast was clear and that he could find Lea fast. 

The coast was not clear. 

The boy ran straight into the chest of another man. He was afraid to look up and when he did he was struck with horror once again. The man he had just slammed into was the biggest rookie from recent years, the boy who joined Whitebeard and quickly rose in the ranks to become his 2nd division commander, Fire Fist Trace. He was a little bit iffy on that name though. The boy wanted to scream. 

Trace smirked, “Calm down kid, we are just…” 

The boy didn’t let him finish speaking, stepping back to stab Ace with his fountain pen, making sure to use his Haki. The pen went right into Fire Fist’s shoulder and he winced in pain. Ace’s mischievous smirk turned into a frown, “Now, that was just unnecessary and rude,” he grabbed the boys wrist and glanced through the door at Marco, “We tried doing it your way, but I think we need to take care of this my way.” The boy heard Marco sigh behind him as Ace grabbed his other arm, looked into his eyes and headbutt him, causing the boy to blackout.


	2. A Cold Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lea wakes up in a cold room

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize in advance for my chapters greatly varying in length

The silence was deafening. Lea woke up in a panic, wondering where she was. The last thing she remembered was the feeling of exhaustion as the sea stole both her energy and warmth. Her mind was foggy as she analyzed her surroundings. The bed that she laid in was bare and provided little warmth, it wasn’t comfortable, but it was far better than the ocean. There were no discernable smells present except the strangely sterile aroma that lingered in the air. The room was a fairly small square concrete room, without decorations or windows of any kind. The only thing in the room aside from the bed was a table with two chairs sitting on opposite ends and a glass of water. 

This was definitely an interrogation room. 

Her body ached as she pushed herself into a sitting position. All of her muscles felt tight and sore, probably from being adrift for so long and not really having the energy to even move. Slowly, Lea stretched her arms and then tugged her legs so that they dangled off the side of the bed. Once in position, she started swinging her legs to warm them up and then cautiously attempted to place her bare feet on the floor. 

Oof. 

The floor was freezing and made her shiver. After a few minutes of convincing herself to get up, Lea got off the bed, bringing the thin blanket with her to try and stay warm as she walked around the room. There wasn’t really anything to see, but it felt nice to finally use her legs after so long. It was weird that the room didn’t appear to have a door. How did she get in here? She thought about using her devil fruit to break out but something felt off, like she was surrounded in sea prism. Since this was an interrogation room it made sense for it to be fortified by sea prism stone, just her luck. 

With a sigh, Lea made her way to the table, sat down and grabbed the glass of water. The glass felt lukewarm, so it had obviously been sitting in the room for a while. Lea swished the water around, creating a little whirlpool checking to make sure there wasn’t anything foreign in the water. It looked safe enough and she was excruciatingly thirsty, but Jason would punch her for being stupid enough to just drink strange liquids lying around, especially in an interrogation room. She laughed to herself, imagining Jason lecturing her for the millionth time about not eating strange foods. As Lea started drinking the water, realization struck her like a fist to the gut. 

Jason wasn’t with her. 

Panic started to manifest itself inside Lea’s stomach and she had to cover her mouth to prevent herself from expelling the water she just consumed. If she’s in an interrogation room, was her brother here too? If that was the case, they might be in big trouble. Jason wasn’t the type to sit quietly if he was captured. Lea shot up and out of the chair, letting the blanket fall to the floor and shaking the table enough that the glass fell and rolled to the floor, shattering upon impact. Her breathing started to get short and heavy as she analyzed her situation, if only she could use her devil fruit… 

Jason was always there to protect her, they had never been separated before. What was she supposed to do? She needed to be strong. She needed to be brave. Her best assets were her attention to detail and ability to collect information, how could she utilize them here. Lea brought her hand to her hand and rubbed her temples, trying to recall what happened before winding up in her current situation. 

Her and Jason had been on the trail of the revolutionaries for the last few months years. If they were a pair of normal individuals, the siblings probably wouldn’t have been able to find a trace of the revolutionaries’ whereabouts at all since they were exceptionally good at covering their tracks and being covert in their operations. It just so happened that in addition to Lea having remarkable control of observation haki and intel gathering, that one revolutionary used a tad bit too much flare in his missions. Don’t misunderstand, the yellow haired boy was one of the best of the best in the Revolutionary army but he tended to leave a larger wake of destruction in his path and was the easiest proverbial crumb that she had to follow. 

Unfortunately, it seemed that they had caught on to the siblings pretty fast and the trail progressively got harder to follow. It didn’t matter though; Lea and Jason were determined to find the revolutionaries. After a couple months of feeling like they had lost track of their only lead, Lea caught wind through her information network of a revolutionary coup happening somewhere along the grand line on an island she had never heard of before. Despite their usual luck, Jason and Lea had been near an island with merchants who were selling eternal poses leading to various islands along the grand line. They paid a pretty penny to buy their specific log pose, but at least they were back on track. 

They set sail immediately, hoping they would make it in time to finally catch their elusive goal. The trip wasn’t too bad mostly, other than the usual hectic and unpredictable weather. A couple pirates tried to raid their ship, but they were nothing that Jason couldn’t handle. The island was almost in sight when the largest storm Lea had ever seen hit their ship. The sky grew dark as the clouds threw kiwi sized hail at their heads. Waves started pounding the sides of the boat, spilling onto the floorboards. Thunder growled above head as lightning struck the water, slowly getting closer. There was nothing they could do to save their ship. Time seemed to freeze as lightning finally struck its target, shattering the ship. Lea felt herself sink into the water, frozen in shock and subsequently losing the ability to move once submerged in the sea. 

Everything following that was a blur. She could picture Jason struggling as he swam her to the surface of the water and pushed her onto a floating piece of debris. He had somehow found a piece of rope and fasted her to the debris to make sure that her useless body didn’t sink. Jason had found his own piece of debris to lay on and held her hand as he swam them away from the wreckage. Their ship was in shambles, burning as the piece fell into the depths of the sea. 

Lea faded in and out of consciousness. For days they floated along the waves, no food or water in sight. She tried the sea water a couple times and coughed, Jason half heartedly telling her that she was stupid because she was dehydrating herself more. Finally, the cold, exhaustion, hunger and dehydration lulled Lea into a state of sleep from which she thought she would never wake from. 

Then she woke up here, in this solitary hell. Where the hell was she. At least she knew that this wasn’t a pirate ship, but that meant that this was most likely some kind of government facility or maybe a criminal hideout. Maybe the revolutionaries had picked her up, but what were the chances of that. Oh gods, what had she gotten herself into. 

There was no obvious way out, she couldn’t use her devil fruit, she was alone, mildly cold and hungry. She needed to breathe, but she could feel her anxiety and panic rising. 

“H…Hello? Is anyone out there?” Lea looked around the room, not sure where to even look since everything looked the fucking same, “I’m s... sure that there’s someone out there. Please! Just let me know that my brothers safe!” 

Silence. 

Staggering to the wall closest to her, Lea began banging her fists against it which actually hurt quite a bit. “PLEASE! HE’S ALL I HAVE! I KNOW SOMEONE’S LISTENIG!” Tears started to roll down her face as she pleaded and screamed at the wall. Lea wanted to break through the walls, but all she could do was yell and bash the walls, occasionally throwing a kick in for good measure. As time went on though, she grew weaker than she was to begin with, tears flowing like waterfalls as she sobbed. Eventually, she grew tired and fell to the floor, hysterically crying into her hands, “What kind of monsters are you people?” 

There was no answer. 

Lea weakly attempted punching the wall as she sat crying into her left arm, eventually crying herself to sleep. 

…………. 

Lea woke up to the smell of coffee and pain around her wrists and ankles. She definitely wasn’t where she fell asleep. She could feel the throbbing in her hands where her fists met the wall and the aching in her toes that she was pretty sure she broke trying to kick the wall. Jason was right and she should have tried harder to learn armament haki. Her eyes were swollen from all the crying and she hated the fact that this wasn’t just some horrible nightmare. Currently, Lea was tied to one of the chairs that was at the center of the room and someone was sitting across from her. Glancing up, Lea couldn’t wait to annihilate her probable captor with a glare from hell only to stare in absolute shock at the man who sat before her. 

Sitting on the opposing side of the table was a young man who looked like he was plucked from a nobles house. He wore a blue dress shirt and vest, adorned with what she assumed was some kind of fancy napkin around his neck. Lea wanted to laugh at the top hat with goggles because they seemed like they would be mildly cumbersome in a fight and what use were goggles if they were sitting on his hat? The man’s most notable feature though was the large burn scar that ran down the left side of his face, only slightly covered by his beautifully maintained wavy yellow hair. In any normal circumstance, Lea would have been enamored by the man sitting before her but she only felt fear right now. 

For months they had been searching for him, they wanted his help. They wanted to be on his side. Instead, she was sitting tied to a chair in an interrogation room like she was some sort of enemy and she had no idea where Jason even was. The yellow haired man finished his coffee, calmly setting his cup on the table. A predatory smile spread across his face as he made eye contact with Lea, making her blood run cold. 

“Looks like you are finally awake. Let’s have a little chat why don’t we?” his smile turned into a scowl as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table while interlacing his fingers, “Let’s start with how you keep finding us and why you’ve been following our trail the last couple years.” 

The man sitting across from her, withering her away with his animosity alone, was none other than Sabo, second in command of the revolutionary army. The one man that fostered both her and Jason’s dream looked one wrong word away from sending her to the bottom of the sea.


	3. Are you Serious?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason just can't win

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In true One Piece fashion, my chapters get hijacked by flashbacks sometimes.   
...  
My bad

Jason’s head hurt. 

A lot. 

His mind felt fuzzy once again as he came to, but the pain quickly brought back the memory of being smashed in the face by Whitebeard’s douchey second division commander. Jason felt rage at the thought of being knocked out before finding his sister and vowed that he would get revenge on that prick later after he figured out what was going on and making sure Lea was safe. 

The room he woke up in this time was a lot different than the humble little room he was in before. This room kind of looked like a huge ass mess hall. There must be a fuckton of Whitebeard pirates, he should have paid attention when Lea was giving him the rundown on the most notorious pirate crews. Hell, he barely even remembered the names of the commanders or captains of the crews he was taught. 

Scanning the room, Jason noticed that there were actually people around this time: two people to be exact. They were whispering at the other end of the room and he strained to listen, but they were just a little too far away. 

This was his chance. 

He was loosely fastened to a chair that was sitting at the end of a long table. His wrists were bound together behind his back with what appeared to be sea prism cuffs and his feet were tied together with a simple rope. The rope wasn’t an issue, but the cuffs were a pain in the ass. Luckily he wasn’t a devil fruit user so the cuffs didn’t affect him, nevertheless they weren’t easy to break in the slightest. He knew from experience. 

For a minute his mind wandered as he recalled a time when Lea had been foolish enough to get herself caught by slave traders. They were new to the grand line and stopped at one of the islands they came across. Jason thought it was suspicious, the log pose didn’t point to the island and there had been no change in the weather to indicate that they were nearing a stable climate. Lea was so excited though that he couldn’t help but begrudgingly let her explore. The island was crawling with people, excitedly bustling about and it made his skin crawl. Something was off about this island. He didn’t have much time to think about it though because Lea had run off to find somewhere to eat. They hadn’t eaten much for a while and they recently turned in a bounty, so they finally had the means to afford something. Lea bounced around, asking the locals where the best food in town could be found and the unanimous answer was a local tavern at the edge of the nearby forest. 

Jason didn’t like it. 

It didn’t really matter since Lea drug him to the secluded tavern despite his warnings that this could be a trap. His reservations fell on deaf ears as his sister waved him off as being too paranoid. The tavern looked homey, but the smell of cooking food made him gag as they walked through the door. Jason hated the aroma of food being cooked. Lea loved it though and made a beeline for the bar top counter, ordering something from the breakfast menu. His sister was a handful and Jason rolled his eyes as he moved to sit next to Lea. 

The food was prepared fast, and Lea ate it even faster. She didn’t even check her food to make sure it wasn’t poisoned or tampered with; Jason wanted to throttle her sometimes for her carelessness. The waitress was kind and Lea thanked her for the delicious meal. Lea wanted to stay and see more of the island, but Jason insisted that they leave. They had been traveling together long enough that she knew when her brother was serious and pouted in defeat as they meandered back to their ship through the forest. 

The forest felt dangerous and more ominous as they made their way back to the heart of town. Lea couldn’t stop rambling about how delicious the food was and wished that they had someone traveling with them who could cook. Jason wasn’t really listening, offering her mumbles of agreement to whatever she was saying. All of his attention was directed to their surroundings. The wind carried whispers of misfortune and it felt as if they were being watched from all sides. 

They made it through the forest without any mishaps, but Jason couldn’t shake the feeling they had been followed. Lea started to whine about her stomach hurting and insisted that she needed to go to a restroom. Jason had wanted to go with her, but Lea put her hands on her hips and laughed, telling him to not be such a worry wart. He settled for standing outside the restroom. 

After a few minutes, Jason knocked on the door. There was no answer. He contemplated for all of two seconds about respecting other people’s privacy before he barged into the bathroom. He called Lea’s name again and silence was his only response. Looking under the stalls Jason could see that there were clearly no feet in any of them, meaning no one was here. Jason exhaled deeply. 

That little shit got herself captured…again. 

Exasperation was nothing new for Jason and it only increased when he ran out of the bathroom and was assaulted by three fairly built men. Each one attacked from a different angle in an attempt to catch the boy off guard and corner him. The men brandished some heavy-duty sabers, but they were nothing special. Jason pulled out his specialized sea prism stone daggers, blocking the sabers from the two jerks from the right and left. The man straight ahead of him thrust his saber forward, aiming for the stomach. Jason gave the man a devilish grin as he hardened his stomach with haki and broke the saber. The man stared at his broken weapon and started to back away, yelling to the other two men to hurry up and finish him. The men didn’t register their boss’s cries, as they stood in shock at their large weapons being parried by two simple, tiny daggers. 

Jason didn’t give them time to react as he pushed against the sabers, causing the men to stumble. Using their confusion to his advantage, he coated both his daggers in haki and threw them at the men on either side of him, piercing their eye sockets. The two men screamed as they crumpled to the ground. Jason ran to the man on the left, grabbed the dagger from his eye and then forcefully stabbed the newly haki coated dagger into the man’s temple and twisted. He didn’t waste time removing his weapon from the fresh corpse, sheathing it and then dashing to the man on his right. Jason grabbed a fistful of the moaning mans hair so that he made eye contact as he ripped his second dagger from the man’s eye. Swiftly Jason brought his bloodied dagger to the man’s throat and cut it without mercy. 

Two down and one left to torture. 

Jason looked at his blade in disgust as he wiped the filthy blood of his attackers on a piece of cloth he kept in his pocket. His attention turned to the man who had tried to sneak away while his partners were killed. This time, Jason pulled out his katana and ran at the man, running him right through the back. Bastard shouldn’t have turned his back to the enemy, especially an overprotective and pissed off brother. He pulled his sword from the mans back and kicked the back of his knees, forcing him to the ground. Jason kneeled slightly behind the man and grabbed his hair, pulling his head back to look him in the eyes. He remembered threatening the man as he swapped his sword out for his daggers and shoved them into his legs. 

The man quickly gave up all the information he had. This island was made by the celestial dragons as bait for potential future slaves, capturing those who were new to the grand line. Cameras littered the island and celestial dragons in the market for new slaves would watch and pick out tourists who caught their fancy, apparently Lea had garnered some scumbags attention. The slave ship was hidden in a cove not too far away and would set sail soon. 

Jason ran as fast as he could and found the ship easily, considering it was the only one loading people in cages. No one on the ship was a match for Jason and his rage. The ship was jam packed with all sorts of people, most of them either crying or silently staring into the distance as if they were already dead. After searching the entire ship, he found Lea passed out and caged in what looked like the ships infirmary. How classy, caging the injured. The cage bars were easily destroyed with one swipe from Jason’s haki infused katana, the cuffs on his sisters wrists were another story. 

Sea prism stone. 

It turned out that Lea had woken up during her transport to the slave ship and tried to use her devil fruit. Unfortunately, she was still too drugged up and couldn’t effectively use her powers. They shot her with a sea prism bullet and then cuffed her so that she wouldn’t cause another ruckus and get away. 

He tried to punch, cut, burn, smash and really just about anything he could think of the get the cuffs off Lea. Nothing worked. The only solution was to find the key. It took a while since there was no one to interrogate, considering he kind of killed every slaver on board, but Jason found it eventually and he carried his sister back to their ship so they could get the hell off that island. 

That island adventure was a disaster, kind of like the situation he was in now. The Whitebeards were some of the most powerful pirates on the sea, led by the most powerful man in the world. The universe must hate him since he wound up here and ended up losing all his weapons, his sister, his dignity to some firey punk who totally deserved being stabbed and was now bound by some of the most powerful cuffs in the world. 

There was only one way that he could break out of the cuffs without the keys. Jason bit his cheeks to stifle any noise he would make as he forcibly pulled his hands through the cuffs. It took a minute, but he was able to break his thumbs enough to slip through his restraints. He cursed under his breath, he’s had to do this quite a few times and it hurt worse with each subsequent break. Jason glanced back to the two men whispering in the corner as he nursed his hands, neither of them had noticed he was awake yet. 

Quickly, he coated his feet in haki and yanked them apart. The rope snapped and fell to the ground. Escaping undetected would be hard. There were three paths out of the mess hall: the first two were doors placed on opposite ends of the room and the third option was another porthole window that hopefully led to the deck and not into the ocean. The far door wouldn’t work since the two men were in front of it. The door behind him would be most ideal, but they probably locked it or had someone guarding it from the outside. Jason’s eyes twitched, the porthole it was then, with any luck a giant phoenix wouldn’t swoop in to wreck his day again. 

His plan now was to get out of the mess hall, find Lea, and escape. Preferably this would all be done without running into any of the commanders on board or Whitebeard himself. Jason slowly lifted himself from the chair, trying to prevent it from scraping across the wooden floor. What he wasn’t expecting was for the infamous Whitebeard pirates to have shitty flooring as it creaked when he stood up. Jason whipped his head in horror towards the other end of the room, meeting with two pairs of eyes. 

Fuck. He’d been discovered…Again. 

The man in a pink kimono smiled at him, “You’re awake again sweetie, sorry for what Ace did to you last time. He can be such a brute sometimes.” The man seemed genuine, but he couldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security. Without answering the man, Jason bolted for the rear door. 

He could hear the pompadoured man holler behind him, “We’ve got a runner!” Footsteps began approaching from the duos previous position as they made their way to catch him. 

He was right, someone was guarding the door. Instead of trying to swing the door open and escape, Jason hardened his body with haki and rammed into the door, forcing it off its hinges and falling straight into the unsuspecting pirate behind it. The mans face was filled with surprise and Jason frowned as he recognized the rat boy in front of him, the same fucker who knocked him out last time. The door was a shock, but Fire Fist regained composure fast and got into a battle stance. Jason didn’t have time this, but he was also a petty bitch. 

He would have loved to have a proper fight with the fire bastard, but this petty bitch was on a schedule. Scooping down, Jason grabbed a handful of wood from the splintered door. His hand hurt like hell, but it didn’t stop him from hurling the haki infused wood chunks at the man in front of him and flipping him off with his other hand. The second division commander hissed as he dodged the projectiles that wouldn’t phase through him and in that moment of distraction, Jason made his move. He dashed forward and swiftly swung his leg up and into Trace’s crotch, making sure to kick as hard as he could with his haki. The man doubled over and coughed in agony, tears of pain threatened to leave his eyes. If murder was a facial expression, then Fire Fist perfectly embodied it. 

Jason sneered at the man as he stood over him, “Aw, did that hurt rat boy?” The second division commanders face contorted into intense revulsion at the nickname he had just been given and looked as if he was about to retort. Jason didn’t give him the opportunity to speak, instead he placed his hands on the black haired mans shoulders, enforced his forehead with haki and slammed his head straight into Trace’s own forehead. Fire Fist crumpled to the floor and Jason laughed, “Paybacks a bitch, ain’t it commander.” 

The elation of beating the commander didn’t last long as the footsteps of the two men from before were fast approaching. Jason took that as his cue to leave and bolted across the deck. The night sky was breath taking, filled with stars that Jason would have loved to study and stare at but his pursuers weren’t far behind. The deck was large and empty, hopefully the crew were all asleep and he wouldn’t have to deal with them. If Lea was anywhere on this ship, she would most likely be kept in the brig somewhere below deck. 

Fuck it. 

He had lost any chance of stealth when the two fools from before spotted him and Jason figured it wasn’t worth the hassle to try anymore. Picking up speed, he ran for the door in front of him, believing that it most likely led beneath deck. The stairs he was greeted with affirmed his hopes. Using his momentum, Jason sped his descent by sliding down the stairs hand rail and hit the ground again running. 

Jason looked around and groaned, there were a lot of doors down here. It made sense, but damn was it annoying. There wasn’t enough time to check them all. With no time to think things through Jason did what he knew best, caused a scene. Using his haki to strengthen his wounded hands, he ran down the halls screaming and punching down doors, “LEA! ARE YOU DOWN HERE?” He didn’t have time to linger, so Jason quickly scanned each room before running to the next, waking up a growing number of cranky pirates as he went. The further he got, the more of a following he accrued. 

Despite all his yelling and general destruction, none of the pirates seemed all that alarmed. He heard some murmuring with a lot of cursing but mostly he heard “Is this the new guy?” and “Not again”. To his surprise, a few of the pirates seemed oddly amused like they thought this whole ordeal was funny. Who the hell were these guys? A bunch of fucking freaks it would appear. 

Jason didn’t face much resistance throughout his entire rampage through the ship. He eventually found his way down to the brig, but Lea wasn’t anywhere to be found. There were only a couple places that he had yet to check, which meant he needed to make his way back to the main deck. As he rushed back to where he came from Jason was taken aback by how empty all the halls were; apparently everyone, minus a few straggles, went back to bed. 

Lacking any form of resistance, he made it back to the main deck with ease. He was greeted by a friendly smile from the kimonoed man and a hearty laugh and wave from Mr. pompadour. 

The man with a bread loaf for hair whistled as he took in the dusty and debri covered boy in front of him, “Pheww, you’ve been pretty busy kid.” Jason took a step forward and settled into a fighting stance. The pair in front of him shot their hands up as their eyes widened, the kimono man stepping forward in a placating manner, “We aren’t here to fight you, just talk.” 

Jason wasn’t buying it. Him and Lea had been on the seas long enough to know that a pirates word couldn’t be trusted. He wasn’t going to give the two pirates a chance to catch him off guard. Jason pulled a piece of splintered wood from a door he shattered out of the waist of his pants and lunged forward. Neither of the men even flinched, instead they looked at him with a mixture of sadness and pity which pissed him off. 

Just before he could make contact with either of the men, the night sky lit up with a brilliant flash of blue and gold-yellow and blinded Jason for a few valuable seconds. He expected the bird from his encounter earlier that day, but it was actually the pineapple head just half transformed. The first division commander jumped from the deck above and flew straight for him, diving out of the sky feet first and kicking Jason in the gut so that he fell backwards, muscle memory kicking in as he did a back roll and caught himself in a kneeling position. His stomach was now in agony, it probably didn’t help that he could tell he was also starving and fighting on empty. 

“Thatch, you two had one job. How hard was it for you two to keep your eyes on one injured kid, yoi?” the birdman looked supremely miffed at the chef styled man. Jason couldn’t quite make out the name but was pretty sure that he heard him called Hatch. 

Hatch sighed in defeat as he brought his hands to the back of his head and interlaced his fingers, “Sorry Marco, the kid…” 

“Stop calling me a kid, you oversized bread loaf,” Jason growled. 

“Oh, my bad,” Hatch sarcastically waved his hands in the air as he rolled his eyes and continued, “The brat looked like he really needed to sleep so Izo and I decided to talk at the other end of the room. Obviously, THAT,” and he then pointedly glared at Jason, “was a mistake. Thanks for swooping in when you did though pal, I thought for sure that we might have gotten skewered by this punk for a second since we were all ordered not to fight.” 

“I wouldn’t feel safe waking up on a strange ship either after drifting along the sea, I’m sure they are just frightened,” Izo chimed in. 

Marco squeezed his temples and looked like he was trying to refrain from strangling the other man. Regaining his composure, the man smiled at Jason “ What’s your name, yoi? I promise no one on this ship is going to hurt you.” 

Jason scoffed, “Are you serious? You expect me to trust you, the notorious Whitebeard pirates, after I woke up in a strange room, was knocked unconscious and then tied and cuffed to a chair? No thank you.” 

Amusement lit up Marco’s face, “In all fairness, you’ve made it kind of hard to talk things out. Ace wasn’t supposed to hurt you, but you did stab him with a pen, yoi.” Slowly, Marco gestured around the deck, “Did you notice, no one even blocked your path as you wreaked havoc below deck. Thatch and Izo wouldn’t have hurt you either,” 

Jason looked around. The first commander was right, no one had followed him or even so much as fought him despite the fact that he had literally broke down the pirates door while they were sleeping. He wanted to fight. He wanted to run and find Lea, but he had already checked most of the ship and was in no state for a full on brawl. The First Divisions phoenix commander was known for his fighting prowess which was no surprise since he stood right alongside whitebeard, but kimono man and chef bunhead were unknown variables. 

Marco was right on one front, he had been hostile from the moment he woke up. There was no reason for him to trust a group of strangers and frankly, he still didn’t, but he had no option but to listen to what they had to say. “The name’s Jason. I’ll listen to what you have to say, but that’s all I can guarantee.” Steadying himself, Jason stood up while still clutching his abdomen. “Tell me first though, where’s my sister?” He held his breath, wanting Marco to inform him that his sister had been here all along and that there was nothing to worry about. 

Jason’s heart sank as Marco’s face softened and his face turned a little melancholy, “You were the only one we picked up, yoi. I’m sorry Jason.” This couldn’t be happening. He had been holding on to her so tight. They had finally been close to their goals. With years of practice and experience, Jason locked up his fears and buried them in a familiar box to deal with later. Marco softly added, “We can walk you around the ship and show you, if that would put you at ease.” 

Snapped out of his daze, Jason skeptically scowled at the phoenix “Show me everywhere. No one walks behind me though, I need to see everyone. Full offense, I don’t trust any of you.” 

Marco nodded in agreement and motioned to the other two to follow him. “We’ll start on the upper deck, yoi. This way.” 

Jason tailed the trio as they silently moved to the upper deck, he knew they were telling the truth. He would have found her by now if she was on board. He just wanted this to be a bad nightmare, but the pain in his head and the kick to his gut let him know that this was all too real.


	4. It's Going to be Okay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lea's interrogated by the Revolutionaries Chief of Staff and Sabo doesn't know how to deal with emotions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Personal headcanon: Revolutionary Sabo( Sabo without his memories) doesn't know how to deal with crying.

Lea didn’t think that this was how her first real encounter with the revolutionaries would go. She had hoped that they would catch up to them, explain their situation and then find the home that her and Jason had been dreaming of since they were left all alone. Obviously, she hadn’t thought everything through and relied a little too heavily on optimism. 

She had been a fool. Of course, they would be skeptical about two young adults following them around, now she was stuck in a sea prism room with the second in command of the revolutionary army who stole her breath away in more ways than one. 

Nervously, Lea laughed, “W...w…well umm, you see the answers aren’t really that simple and it’s kind of a long story.” Lea squirmed in her seat and really wished that her hands were free so that she could fidget with her hands. Sabo just stared, waiting for her to continue. Looking at the table, Lea continued “For starters, my name is Lea. Gathering information and tracking people is my specialty. My devil fruit allows me to amass data pretty stealthily and efficiently.” 

Sabo’s facial expressed morphed from pure hostility to that of mild interest and curiosity. “We had a hunch you were a devil fruit user with how hard it was to figure out how you managed to follow us. What is your devil fruit power?” 

Lea thought for a second. Should she reveal her powers? She wanted Sabo and the others to trust her, her and Jason wanted to join them after all. Well, she wanted to join them, but Jason had his own reasons and only would have stayed for his sister. After briefly thinking about it, she decided that she would be selective about the information she have the revolutionaries and would offer info for info. With a gulp, Lea put on a brave face, “I… I’ll tell you what my devil fruit is and w…will answer any question you have if you answer some of my questions in turn.” 

“You aren’t really in a position to negotiate here kid.” 

Lea couldn’t contain her scoff, “You are probably younger than me, don’t call me kid.” If her hands weren’t restrained, Lea would have covered her face in embarrassment and horror at the fact that she just reflexively got defensively sassy with the Revolutionaries Chief of Staff. Both her and Jason hated being called kid, it brought back a lot of bad memories and they didn’t like being treated like infants. All she could do now was stare wide-eyed in dismay and hope that Sabo didn’t react poorly. 

Sabo chuckled, “ You are a lot spunkier than that other fella we brought in with you.” Lea’s heart jumped, maybe they had taken Jason into custody as well! She felt confidence grow at the thought that they might have made it here together after all, just not in the way that they had expected. Wiping a tear from his eye, the yellow haired boy gave a mischievous grin “Fine, I’ll answer your questions but only IF the answer isn’t classified,” Lea sighed in relief, but Sabo quickly added “If you lie at any point, I’ll make sure this room is the last place you’ll ever see. Now, answer my question first.” 

Lea swallowed hard, trying not to let her nerves show too much. She needed to remain calm and think clearly if she was going to get any information out of Sabo. As an information hound, her negotiation skills had been finessed over the years and Lea was pretty good at getting the info she needed. Usually she had nerves of steel, but that was only because she put so much faith in Jason backing her up. Now, she was alone and her strong foundation felt like it was crumbling away. 

Her voiced shook as she spoke, “I have a rare zoan type: the creature-creature fruit, mammal and aviary variety. It’s the counterpart to another fruit known as the creature-creature fruit, reptile and amphibian variety. I can transform into both mammals and birds as long as I have touched them,” Sabo looked intrigued and gestured for her to continue, “My power is limited in terms of how many creatures I can transform into, at any given time I can only have 10 transformations in my arsenal: five birds and five mammals. I have to touch the animal I want to become with one of my fingers, which then copies their form and abilities. Mammal transformations are stored in my left hand, while birds are in my right.” 

Sabo raised his eyebrows in fascination as he whistled, “Wow, that’s a pretty impressive devil fruit you acquired. Must have been hard to get your hands on something like that, no wonder we had a hard time finding out who you and you partner were.” 

At the mention of her devil fruits acquisition, Lea flinched. She didn’t like to think about how she got her powers. Her physical recoil didn’t go unnoticed by her interrogator. 

Sabo leaned onto his left hand, “I see that I said something that bothered you. Interesting,” A smile filled with ill-will continued to grace his otherwise handsome face, “It’s your turn now, what’s your question?” 

A million thoughts ran through her mind. Lea knew what she wanted to ask. She wanted to know where her brother was, but he would probably get cheeky with her and not answer straight, it’s what she would do in a situation like this. Despite her hearts desire to blurt out the most important question, Lea went another route, “How did you know who my brother and I were and that we were following you?” 

Tilting back in his chair, Sabo chuckled and brought his hands to his abdomen and interlaced them, “Honestly, we didn’t know who you two were and still don’t. Originally, we thought there was only one, but it makes sense now with your devil fruit power as to why you were so hard to track. I have never even heard of a zoan type like yours.” 

“I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it. The World Government works really hard to keep it under wraps,” Lea spit venomously, face contorting in disgust. 

Sabo’s eye widened as the animosity that she gave off and Lea took a deep breath, let out a long sigh and smiled at the man in front of her, “Sorry, thinking about my fruit can be a little triggering to say the least,” she forced a soft chuckle to escape her lips, “ I just really hate the World Government and lets leave it at that for now.” 

The first real smile that Lea had seen since he arrived softly spread across Sabo’s face, “That’s something we can both agree on.” His face hardened a little once again as he continued from the original question, “Back to the question though, you tracked us pretty well, but we caught on because of that brother of yours. You were both fairly stealthy, but for the last few months your brother tipped us off to your presence because he was taking down some high profile targets we were keeping our eyes on. Everywhere we showed up, slave traders we were following ended up getting taken out and it wasn’t by us.” 

Lea rolled her eyes and gently hit her forehead on the table in exasperation, “Dammit Jason,” lifting her head from the table Lea looked at Sabo with a tired look on her face, “Well, that sounds like something Jason would do. I always wondered where that fucker wandered off to sometimes. He’s always doing stuff to protect me, I’m sure that’s what he was doing. We haven’t had the greatest history with slavers.” Lea shivered thinking about it. 

“Your brother didn’t do anything that we weren’t already going to do. He did mess up our reconnaissance though. We were following those groups to find the ring-leader and take them down, now we have to start from scratch again,” Sabo looked highly unimpressed. 

Lea could only look at the ground in mortification, “Sorry.” 

Glancing back up, Lea observed as Sabo looked slightly uncomfortable for a minute as he brought one of his hands to his hair and scratched his head. The look was temporary though as he composed himself again and asked his next question, “My turn again, how exactly did you find us?” 

He wasn’t really going to like her answer. “Um, well. You see… You are the reason that I was able to track you guys.” 

Shock crossed Sabo’s face, “How exactly am I the reason?” 

Lea really didn’t want to have to tell him that he was probably the worst at hiding his tracks of all the revolutionaries, despite being the second in command. “The average person can’t track you guys, so you don’t have to worry about that. It’s just… you tend to leave a mess behind on your missions. Lots of bodies, the occasional unconscious survivor who saw you, hair, blood. I was able to use these things to get a basic idea of who you were, what you looked like and, I swear this isn’t creepy, your scent. I used my animal forms to follow your trail and listen through the grapevine about where the revolutionary army was planning to go next. All my brother and I wanted was to find you guys and talk, I swear.” 

“Koala’s gonna kill me,” Sabo groaned as he rubbed his temples. 

Lea laughed to herself. “No need to beat yourself up over it, like I said, I’m probably one of the few people that could track any of that stuff.” 

“That may be true, but I still should have been more careful. My partner is always getting on my case about it and I’m never gonna hear the end of this,” Sabo looked like he wanted to hide. This Koala person must be quite intimidating. 

“Your partner sounds like my brother, he’s always getting on my case about being safer and more skeptical of others,” Lea fondly sighed, “I miss him.” It was her turn to ask a question again and she toyed with the idea of asking about Jason again. It wasn’t quite time, she had one more question she wanted to ask, “My turn again, do you see my brother and I as a threat?” 

Sabo snapped out of his lamentations, “Currently, that’s undetermined. With your powers you could be both a valuable ally or a dangerous foe. We don’t know much about your brother yet though. The way you followed us was suspicious, but we can also be hard to find so it’s slightly understandable. That leads into my next question for you, why did you want to find us?” 

This was her moment to show that they weren’t their enemies, “Well, my brother and I have a long history with the World Government and the celestial dragons specifically. They destroyed our lives. Our whole island was thrown into chaos because we failed to give them their yearly tribute. Those who weren’t killed were taken to the celestial dragons as slaves, leaving no one behind. My brother and I were the only survivors.” Sabo kept a straight face as she continued her story. 

“We drifted from island to island in the east blue for many years, barely surviving. I learned how to use my powers better and Jason trained his fighting skills. After many years of training, we decided to become bounty hunters on the grand line. It was tough, but Jason and I make a good team and anytime I got into a pinch my brother saved me. We just kind of lived in survival mode for the longest time and then one day I heard about the revolutionaries and how they were fighting the world government and working towards creating a better world for everyone. That was why I wanted to find you guys, I want to join the cause and put my skills to use somewhere that they’ll matter,” Lea gently exhaled, “ My brother didn’t care much for joining, he was just along for the ride until we learned about one of your members, Ivankov,” Lea continued and explained why her brother wanted to meet the revolutionary so bad and Sabo nodded in understanding. 

Sabo didn’t seem quite as menacing as before, it felt as if Lea had made her case successfully and that his hostility dissipated. Getting up from his chair, the man walked over to her and released her restraints. Lea was met with a genuine smile as she made eye contact with Sabo as she wrung her wrists, “Sorry about the rough treatment, we just needed to make sure that you weren’t an enemy.” 

Finally, she had been waiting for this moment, “Hey Sabo, can I ask one more question.” 

“Sure, go ahead.” 

Lea swallowed hard, trying not choke on her words, “D…did you pick up my brother when you picked up me? Is he here?” She gave a quick description of her brother, making sure to include his weapons since he wouldn’t be caught dead without them. 

Sabo’s lips pursed and his face filled with sympathy as he told her that the other person they brought in wasn’t her brother, but someone else. Lea’s head felt fuzzy as everything around her started to sound like static. He wasn’t here after all. The only family she had left was dead or missing in the vast sea for gods know how long. She could see worry overtake Sabo as he placed a hand on her shoulder and tried talking to her. She wanted to respond but the words got stuck, instead her lips started to tremble as her eyes filled with tears. A flurry of sobs wracked her body as she broke down. 

Her brother was gone, and she was alone. 

Sabo was good at a lot of things: infiltration, lying, assassination, diplomacy, fighting, however he was lacking when it came to comforting those in pain. He didn’t have to deal with people in grief very often, most of the revolutionaries were used to tragedies and they all pretty much shoved their sorrow into a box and used it as fuel to create a better world. Sometimes he had to console a child left behind, but they were a lot less complex than a young adult who seemed to have lived through countless tragedies and hardships over a short period of time. 

Biting his lip, Sabo beheld the sight before him. The girl, Lea, was bawling her eyes out. Her pink hair had begun to stick to her face, adhered by the ceaseless rain of tears streaming from her sky blue eyes. If everything she said was true, this girl would be a beneficial and invaluable addition to the revolutionaries. She seemed a little timid and aloof with a heart of good intentions, filled with determination to not let others experience the horrors her and her brother had experienced. 

Sometimes Sabo wished that he could remember his past, but he had come to terms with the fact that he may well never remember. If he had any trauma like this though, he was probably better off not remembering. Sabo didn’t want to know what it would feel like to lose the only family he had left, especially if he had siblings that he was close with like this girl. His heart hurt as Lea cried for her brother, like it wanted him to recall something but the memory just wouldn’t surface. 

Sabo looked pleadingly at the wall in front of him and Lea, knowing full well that Koala and Hack were watching him from the observation room. He made a slight gesture with his head, beckoning his observers to come help him. While he waited for his emotional backup, Sabo put placed his hand on the distraught girls shoulder and lowered himself so that he was at eye level, “Hey now, you said your brother was strong right? You shouldn’t give up hope just because we didn’t pick him up.” He really didn’t know what to say, but apparently that wasn’t the right thing to go with. 

Lea’s breathing picked up speed at the mention of her brother and she cried harder than before, to the point where Sabo was pretty sure she was hyper-ventilating. Shit. Koala hadn’t made it to the room yet and he wasn’t equipped to deal with this. Not knowing what to do, Sabo acted quickly and pulled Lea’s chair away from the table and turned it so they were face to face. Sabo positioned himself so that he was eye level with the girl and placed both his hands on her shoulders, squeezing them tight, “I know this is hard, but you need to calm down and breathe. If you don’t you’re going to pass out again.” Lea didn’t stop crying, but she at least started to try and breath slower. 

Sabo sighed. 

A little electronic noise sounded and Sabo looked up. A door shaped panel appeared in the wall as it slid to the side and Sabo felt relief take over his body as the familiar silhouette of Koala entered his view. She was always better with this sort of thing than him. Sabo lifted his hands off of Lea’s shoulders, “You sure took your time getting he…” 

Sabo felt a fist connect with his face as he was sent flying across the room. It wasn’t the worst punch he had received from Koala, but it hurt nonetheless. Sabo shot a look of betrayal at his partner as he rubbed the newly tenderized spot on his cheek. 

Koala shot him a burning glare of disapproval, “We really need to teach you how to be more sympathetic Sabo. You can’t just throw facts at everyone and expect them to deal with them the way you do.” Turning her attention to Lea, Koala gently placed a hand on one of her shoulders, “Hey there, my name is Koala. I’m sorry that you had to deal with that tactless fool over there. Everything’s going to be alright.” Lea’s sobs began to subside as she listened to Koala, “I can’t promise your brother is fine, but I am sure that we can help you look for him. You said that you were good at tracking and gathering intel, right? Once you are all rested up we can go and see what information we can find.” 

Lea sniffled as she nodded at Koala and Sabo was bitter that she was able to relax the girl down so fast. It wasn’t like he had been that insensitive, he thought he had done pretty well all things considered. Koala moved to ruffle Lea’s hair and smiled as she told her that she would be right back. She then briskly turned towards Sabo and his eyes widened. 

Shit. She really was pissed. 

He wished that he could just phase through the wall right that instant. Sabo grimaced as he prepared for the impending pain. Sure enough, when Koala reached him, she immediately pinched both of his cheeks and pulled as hard as she could, “I can’t believe you really can’t calm down one heart broken girl. All you had to do was say something soothing or give her hope.” 

God his cheeks hurt. No matter how many times Koala scolded him like this his cheeks were never prepared. “I’m sowwy Koawa. I don’t gwive fwalse hwope. That’s cwueler than any weality.” 

She released his cheeks and let out a deep sigh, “I understand that, which is why you should learn to give hope while also grounding it in reality. For someone who prides himself in being able to tackle any job, you sure suck at regular human interaction sometimes. Also, we will have a discussion later about your recklessness. I told you that you were being too cocky Sabo,” Koala crossed her arms. “For now, let’s focus on the girl.” 

Sabo rubbed his cheeks and nodded in concurrence, “I agree. I think that we should take her to see Dragon. She has a pretty powerful devil fruit and it sounds like she could tip the upcoming war against Marijoa further in our favor.” 

Koala rolled her eyes at Sabo, “While all those things are true, we should settle her in first you dummy. She just received horrible news about her only remaining family and she’s in an unfamiliar place. We can return her original clothes now that we know she’s not a threat and she needs to eat a proper meal. We can see Dragon after that.” 

In the short conversational lull between the two revolutionaries, a small voice spoke up, “You have my clothes? Th…they weren’t ruined in the storm?” Both Sabo and Koala turned their heads to see emotionally fragmented Lea perk up at the mention of her clothing. 

“Yeah, they had a few tears and were filthy, but it was nothing that couldn’t be fixed. We have the weapons you had on you too,” Koala replied. 

Sabo couldn’t help but smile as Lea wiped a few new tears from her eyes and beamed at them, “Thank the gods, I’m so happy! My brother got me those clothes as a birthday present, despite the fact that he hates the style. Says it’s too revealing,” she let out a soft and tired laugh, “Those weapons were from my mom. They’re some of the only items I had left from my island, thank you for keeping them.” Lea started to get up, but fell forward and both Sabo and Koala instinctively dived to catch her. 

“Woah there, you just spent a considerable amount of time crying after crying all morning and you haven’t eaten anything recently. Don’t push yourself. We aren’t in any rush right now, okay?” Lea tittered and Sabo huffed, he was trying to be considerate. 

“You know Sabo, you sounded a lot like my brother just then. You both If I didn’t know better I would think that you had brothers or sisters of your own,”Lea stifled another soft laugh, “Also, I heard you two earlier and you really weren’t that bad at trying to calm me down. I’m just prone to crying and it takes me a hot minute to recollect myself. Plus, I have a generalized fear of most men who aren’t my brother, so Koala was more comforting since I don’t know you too well yet. What you said was true and I did appreciate it, the bluntness was familiar.” 

Sabo slightly blushed as he turned his face to the side and away Lea’s, “Sounds like your brother is a cool guy. I hope that I get to meet him some day.” 

The room settled into silence for a minute. Everyone just kind of stood there as each person collected their thoughts. 

Koala was the first one to speak again, “Now that everything has calmed down, let’s go get you dressed and fed, okay Lea?” The girl vigorously nodded her head and Koala moved, pushing Sabo out of the way, so that she could let Lea lean fully on her shoulders, “While I go take of Lea, go tell Dragon what happened during the interrogation, I’m sure he’s waiting for your full report. We will meet up with you once she’s gotten settled, got it?” 

“Roger that,” Sabo mockingly saluted his partner, knowing that she couldn’t punch his shoulder like she normally would since she was currently preoccupied. Without acknowledging his sass, Koala turned and led Lea away. The girl held a lot of promise, Dragon was going to be interested to meet her.


	5. Lost Boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a gnarly storm, the Whitebeards set anchor to fix the Moby, Marco doesn't expect Ace to bring a shipwrecked boy back to the ship.
> 
> *the beginning half is a flashback from Marco's POV, the other half of the chapter is a mix between Marco and Jason's pov in the present*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random names that pop up are OC's I created for the different divisions. Also, if anyone is interested I have a list of my personal headcanons for the Whitebeard crew that i use in this fic on my tumblr.   
warnings for mention of injuries, they aren't too graphic though

_ Marco was glad that the Moby Dick was a sturdy ship. The Grand Line was unpredictable and the storms they regularly encountered would have sunk a normal ship years ago. Looking around, the first division commander took in _ _ some of _ _ the damage they had sustained in their most recent bout with the sea: the deck was filled with sea debris, some of the sails were torn and would need to be repaired _ _ and the lightning had lit a couple fires that mostly affected the masts. Luckily, the fires didn’t get too big and everything could be easily repaired by the Whitebeards top notch shipwrights and craftsmen. _ _ _

_ With a sigh, Marco moved across the deck to talk to their resident hot head and navigator who was currently surveying the sea and sky to make sure that no new storm was brewing.  _

_ “How’s the weather looking Ace, you see anything potentially hazardous out there?” _

_ Ace finished jotting down whatever thoughts he was in the middle of on the piece of parchment he was holding and then reached t _ _ o _ _ scratch the back of his head with his pen, “Shit if I know Marco. I may be the  _ _ navigator, _ _ but I can’t predict the Grand Lines weather,” Ace brought his arm down and playfully punched Marco’s arm, “You know that  _ _ bird-brain _ _ . As exceptional as I am, my skills are limited. Now, surviving the disastrous weather AFTER it’s arrived, that I handle with nothing less than extreme expertise.” _

_ Ace was right. Since the day that he officially joined the crew and became the  _ _ Whitebeards navigator, they hadn’t lost a single ship to any storm. It was rather impressive.  _

_ “Humble as ever I see,” Marco slightly rolled his eyes and laughed, “Well, Mr. Expert Navigator,  _ _ Blamenco _ _ and the sixth division have estimated that the ship repairs should take roughly three or four  _ _ more  _ _ days to repair. We’ll be setting sail again as soon as their finished.” _

_ Ace hummed in acknowledgement _ _ , “We’ve already been anchored for a couple days, the storm must have caused quite a bit of damage this time.” _

_ “The Moby did take her fair share of damage during the storm, but the reason repairs are taking so long is because the nearest island was roughly a  _ _ day’s _ _ journey away so the  _ _ material _ _ we needed to repair everything took a while to get here. _ _ She’s been through worse though, so the Moby’s going to be fine.” _

_ Ace smiled, “That’s good to hear. Pops would be disappointed if we let a mere storm take down his top commanders and his main fleet.” Finally taking his eyes off the sky, Ace jumped up to sit on the railing in front of him so that he faced Marco, “ We are lucky that there hasn’t been another storm since we aren’t near an island where we can recuperate in a stabilized weather environment.  _ _ I am going to scout ahead a little bit, make sure there aren’t any other pirates nearby and see if I find anything interesting.”  _

_ Marco nodded in approval, “Good idea Ace. I’m going to keep overseeing the cleanup effort, but I also need to tend to the wounded. Our sickbay is currently  _ _ filled to capacity _ _ and I need to get them up and moving. “  _

_ “No one is hurt too bad right?” _

_ “No, mostly just burns and fairly deep lacerations from falling pieces of the burnt masts. The most serious injuries aren’t even from the storm but from that last island we were on. Those pirates we had to run  _ _ off of _ _ pops land were some hard-hitting ruffians. _ _ ” _

_ Marco was caught off guard by Ace’s boisterous laugh. _

_ “I’m glad our brothers are safe, but no one should ever underestimate an opponent. Just because we bear the mark of Whitebeard that doesn’t make us invincible,” Ace wiped a tear from his eye from laughing too hard. _

_ Marco smirked,  _ _ “ You _ _ are sure one to talk Ace. I seem to recall that you are the most notorious for thinking you are invincible and rushing  _ _ head first _ _ into danger.” _

_ Ace feigned shock and gasped, holding his hand to his chest, “I’m wounded Marco. I would never.”  _

_ Turning around, Marco snorted and waved his hand _ _ , “Whatever you say, all perfect  _ _ Portgas _ _ D. Ace. Be safe on your scouting mission.” _

_ While Marco couldn’t see him, he knew that Ace had most likely rolled his eyes at him as he jumped onto his striker,  _ _ “ Yes _ _ mother.” _

_ Today was going to be a long day.  _

_ ////// _

_ The sun had set a couple hours  _ _ ago _ _ and Marco was feeling exhausted. He was always excruciatingly tired, but days like this made him feel like he could sleep for a week straight. There were only a couple more reports he needed to fill out and a few more commanders he needed to check in with and then he would try to get a few hours of sleep before tackling the chaos all over again.  _

_ The whole ship was quiet, most of the crew having retired to their quarters for the night. Only the night watch and a few night owls were still roaming around the ship.  _

_ Marco set his pen on the paper…  _

_ “Marco! Marco! Come quick!” _

_ And his peace flew out the window. Placing his pen down, Marco squeezed his temples and stood up. What could it be this time? Marco gracefully rushed out of his room that doubled as an office, making sure to keep himself calm and collected, which was far from how he felt.  _

_ “What’s the commotion about  _ _ Doma _ _ ?” Marco inquired of tonight’s watchmen. _

_ “Sir, Ace is coming back and he’s not alone!” _

_ Marco raised his eyebrow inquisitively, “What do you mean he’s not alone? Are we under attack?” _

_ “No, I mean he’s carrying  _ _ someone _ _ and he looks slightly panicked.” _

_ Doma _ _ promptly pointed off in the distance to a  _ _ fiery _ _ orange blob and handed Marco his  _ _ spyglass. He was still quite a distance  _ _ away, but _ _ looking through the spyglass  _ _ Doma’s _ _ observation was confirmed: Ace was carrying someone and looked worried. Marco tried to see who the person he was carrying was, but he couldn’t make out anything other than the fact they appeared to be a young boy. He didn’t look like a Whitebeard pirate. They weren’t missing anyone. Maybe it was someone who got shipwrecked during the storm. If that was the case, they had to have been drifting in the sea for days.  _ _ If that was the case, they would most likely be suffering from hypothermia and would need treatment ASAP.  _

_ Marco quickly turned around and handed the spyglass back to  _ _ Doma _ _ , “ _ _ Doma _ _ , go grab  _ _ Ash and tell him to prep my room for a  _ _ hypothermia patient. _ _ He should be in the infirmary. Go quickly _ _ , yoi _ _ !”  _

_ “Yes sir!”  _ _ Doma _ _ spun on his heels a dashed for _ _ the _ _ infirmary. _

_ Ace’s striker was getting closer at a decent speed, but he was still a  _ _ ways _ _ off. Marco needed to know the condition of the individual he was carrying so that he could properly treat him, there must be a reason that Ace chose to bring them back to the Moby Dick. Without a second thought, Marco jumped up and over the railing, body turning into magnificent blue and yellow flames as he transformed into his phoenix form.  _ _ The flight didn’t take long and when he got to  _ _ Ace _ _ he transformed mid flight to land perfectly behind Ace and braced himself on his shoulders.  _

_ “What’s the situation Ace? What’s up with the kid?” _

_ Despite the look of concern on his face, Ace spoke calmly as he continued to look forward, “While I was out patrolling the area and gathering weather data, I saw a body floating on a piece of driftwood. When I went to check it out, I found this kid in pretty bad shape.” Ace slowed down a little bit so that he could gesture to Marco, “Look at this,” Ace grabbed one of  _ _ the boys arms and Marco _ _ inhaled sharply, “I’m not sure how old this boy is, but he’s wounded badly _ _ and if you look at his right hand, it looks like he was gripping something tight. It must have slipped out of his hand though when he lost consciousness. _ _ ”  _

_ The only lighting right then was Ace’s flames, but Marco made a quick analysis of the boy in front of him: he didn’t look to be much older than 18 or 19 with short brown hair. The skin that was exposed had plenty of scrapes and bruises, but it appeared that most of the visible wounds weren’t  _ _ actually fresh _ _ and were actually scars.  _ _ His hand was indeed stuck in a peculiar position, like he was trying to hold onto something tight, hopefully it wasn’t something important.  _ _ His clothing looked sturdy and well-worn, but that wasn’t helping him right now _ _ seeing as they were  _ _ definitely making _ _ him colder since they were drenched with freezing sea water. Marco would need to evaluate the kid better once they got back to the ship.  _

_ “It’s hard to tell what condition he’s actually in without proper lighting, but most of the wounds seem to be old. You probably got to him in the nick of time. If he’s been floating around since the storm hit, this poor boy has been cold and wounded for a dangerous amount of time _ _ , yoi _ _ .” _

_ Ace chuckled, “He’s lucky I found him before a sea king could eat him. Freezing to death would have sucked too.”  _

_ Neither commander continued the conversation as Ace applied more fire power to the striker and sped towards the Moby Dick.  _

_ \--- _

_ The ride was quick and once they arrived at their ship, Marco saw  _ _ Doma _ _ on deck. _ _ It looked like  _ _ Doma _ _ had some foresight and threw a ladder down the side of the ship. _

_ “Your room is ready Commander, Ash got it all set up like you said to!” _

_ Marco smiled, “Thank you  _ _ Doma _ _ , you can go back to your watch now.  _ _ Ive _ _ got this situation taken care of _ _ , yoi _ _ .”  _ _ Doma _ _ nodded his head and left to make his way back to the  _ _ crows _ _ nest.  _

_ Ace carefully hoisted the kid up and over his right shoulder and then slowly ascended  _ _ the ladder. Glad that he didn’t have to tell Ace what he needed to do, Marco transformed his arms so that he could fly himself onto the deck and get ready to treat the boy. Reaching the deck, Marco looked down to Ace who was halfway up the ladder, “When you get up here, bring the kid to my room. I had Ash set it up since the infirmary is full.” Marco didn’t wait for a reply and headed to his room.  _

_ His room was warm and  _ _ everything he needed to help the wounded boy was here. Marco was glad that the men under his command were so reliable. Before too long, Ace walked through the door that Marco left open for him with the kid still slung over his shoulder. Marco  _ _ raised his eyebrow questioningly at the second division commander, “You could have carried him in your arms once you got off the ladder you know, yoi.” _

_ Ace shrugged his  _ _ uninhibited _ _ shoulder, “Yeah, but that would have taken more time. I figured it would be faster to just walk straight here. What do you want me to do with him?” _

_ Marco just rolled his eyes, “Could you lay him on that table over there  _ _ real _ _ quick? I need to assess his injuries before we remove his clothes and put him in something dry, yoi.”  _

_ “No problem,” Ace mockingly saluted Marco with his free hand and took the boy to the temporary table. The table was simple and set up so that the  _ _ kids _ _ clothes didn’t soak the bed he would be lying in to rest and recover or get potentially covered in blood. As Ace gently placed the unconscious boy on the table , Marco asked him something that had been on his mind since he saw Ace carrying someone who wasn’t on their crew, “Ace, what made you bring th _ _ is boy back to the ship? You could have taken him to the closest island, yoi?” _

_ Ace hummed to himself as he brought his hands to the back of his head and interlaced his fingers, “Well, I thought about it at first, but then I vaguely recognized the kid.” _

_ “From where?” _

_ “Remember how Namur has been following that  _ _ guy _ _ around that Pop’s has been interested in recruiting? He told us what he looks like and this kid matches that description. Plus, Namur recently lost track of him in that storm a few days ago and the pieces all seemed to point to this being the person  _ _ we’ve been looking for.” _

_ Marco’s eyes widened and he took a better look at the person laying on the table. Sure enough, now that they had proper lighting and he wasn’t being held in Ace’s arms, the boy did match the description that Namur had given them. If he recalled correctly, the boys name was supposedly  _ _ Jason _ _ but it hadn’t been confirmed yet since most of their information came from outside sources. Jason’s hair was  _ _ actually black _ _ with blue accents and his face was scarred, the most noticeable one being the scar across his right eye.  _ _ A chunk _ _ of his left ear was  _ _ missing _ _ and Marco wondered how on earth that happened. The kid was wearing cargo pants and one of his  _ _ Hawaiian shirts that Namur claimed he frequently wore, this one adorned with pineapples.  _ _ Taking a look _ _ at his arms again, Marco saw that his original assumption was correct and that most of his “wounds” were old scars that just looked awful due to discoloration from the extreme cold.  _ _ There were some new cuts but none of them were bleeding too bad. What mattered now was removing his soaked clothes so that he could  _ _ heal his wounds and put ‘Jason’ into dryer garments. Before he did that, he turned to Ace, who was intently staring at him and his patient, to clarify something that just crossed his mind,  _ _ “If the information we’ve gathered is accurate and this is indeed the ‘Jason’ that Namur has been tracking, wasn’t he travelling with a partner?” _

_ Ace’s face grew solemn,  _ _ “ Yeah _ _ , but I didn’t see anyone else where I found him. I did look, but whoever he was with must have drifted somewhere else and gotten picked up or sank.” _

_ _

_ Marco had a feeling that this mystery person is probably what the boy had been holding onto so tight before he lost consciousness. _ _ Losing someone was never easy, Marco knew  _ _ that _ _ and his heart ached for the loss the kid would feel when he woke up.  _

_ Ace interrupted the short lived and dismal silence with a lively clap, “You know what I did find though?” _

_ “Do tell Ace. It’s not like I have a patient to help or anything _ _ .” _

_ The black-haired boy clicked his tongue and glowered at the phoenix, “Tsk, it’s not like you can’t listen and help at the same time. You’ve already determined that his wounds aren’t serious.” _

_ “They may not be serious, but he’s still suffering from hypothermia. You must have forgotten what that’s like, right fire fist _ _ , yoi _ _ ?” Marco shot an unimpressed look in Ace’s direction. “Tell me what you found as you hand me those clothes that are next to you. I’m going to tend his wounds and change his clothes now so that he can warm up.” _

_ Ace picked up the clothes and resumed his overly enthusiastic story about what he found, “Namur mentioned that this Jason kid was a fighter and he wasn’t joking man. I found some  _ _ high-quality _ _ weaponry  _ _ on his person, which I removed so he would be easier to carry. He had a gun that was clearly stolen from some nobles. There were numerous knives and a set of brass knuckles that sucked to pick up because they were sea prism stone,” the logia user shivered and frowned at the thought of the horrific sea stone,” and speaking of sea stone, he was wearing this badass katana that I couldn’t get a good look at because THAT was made of that damn stone too. And then there w _ _ ere _ _ th _ _ ese _ _ really fancy  _ _ blades _ _ that…” Ace would have continued rambling but as he reached Marco he froze. “Hey Marco, is…” _

_ Marco turned around and grabbed the clothes from Ace’s hands, “Ace, could you go and grab Izo? He should be in his room. The wounds aren’t bad, but I need his opinion on something _ _ , _ _ _ _ yoi _ _ .” _

_ Ace stood still. _

_ Huffing, Marco placed the clothes down and then turned to Ace, who he then physically  _ _ spun around to face the turn, “That wasn’t a request Ace, get going _ _ , yoi _ _ .” _

_ Snapping out of his trance, Ace ran to the door, taking one more look back at Marco like he was going to say something but decided against it and continued his dash to wake the 16 _ _ th _ _ commander.  _

_ _ _ Marco sighed as he continued his work and waited for his fellow commanders to return. There was a lot of questions they would have to ask this boy when he woke up.  _

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The Moby Dick was an enormous ship and Marco was currently painstakingly aware of that as he led Jason around . The boy was on edge and anytime Marco looked back at him he received a suspicious and angry glare, but he wasn’t nearly as hostile as he had been since the boy woke up.  Well, he wasn’t attacking anyone and running away at least. 

They had made their way through the entire lower deck of the ship, checking each  room thoroughly and Marco sighed looking at all the damage that Jason’s earlier rampage caused.  Blamenco and Foss a wouldn’t be happy about that and would probably arm wrestle each other to decide who would fix the mess since it lied in the gray area between their  particular skill sets. Most of the crew had gone back to sleep. Everyone had been warned that something like this might happen when Jason woke up, so no one was surprised. 

Thatch and Izo talked quietly between themselves as they walked ahead in order to give Jason as much space as possible. Despite not knowing the boy well, their hearts broke, just as Marco’s did, every time they entered a room and Jason’s face filled with hope that was shattered as fast as it arrived.  It now made sense to him why the boy had been grasping so tightly to the person he was traveling with: he didn’t want to lose his sister.  By the time they had reach the main deck again, Jason had hardened his face after noticing that his entourage could see his emotions and felt sorry for him. 

The only places left to show on the ship were the  mess hall , a storage room and Pop’s room. Marco turned around to face Jason as he kept walking backwards  so as to not close the distance between them, “We only have a couple places left to check, yoi. We are  gonna go to the  mess hall and then that leaves Pop’s room…”

“By ‘Pops’ do you mean Whitebeard?” Jason’s eyes grew large, like he was afraid that Whitebeard would just smite him by uttering his name.

Marco offered a small, understanding smile, “Yes, we all call him Pops because he calls us his sons. Don’t worry, he’s a lot different than you probably think he is. He actually went with some of our brothers to the nearest island because he had a feeling you might be  intimidated to meet him right when you woke up, yoi.”

“That’s… awfully considerate ,” Jason eyed the commander suspiciously. 

Marco turned around as Thatch informed him that they had arrived at the mess hall and talked as he continued forward, “To a certain point, yes. Like we’ve said before, we want to ensure that you know we aren’t a threat. Pop’s does want to talk to you eventually, yoi.”

Marco didn’t have to look back to know that Jason looked alarmed at the prospect of meeting his father. 

Silence settled amongst the group as they finished the somber tour of the Moby Dick showing Jason that his sister, was indeed, not on board. Back on the main deck once again, Jason leaned against the rail with his back to the sea and icy blue eyes gazing at the dimly lit sky. Not breaking eye contact with the stars Jason broke the silence, “You have other  ships right?”

Marco hummed, “Yes, we do.”

“ Could you take me to them?”

“Yes, of course. They aren’t  here right now though since  most of the c ommanders are on missions  or getting supplies from the island, like I mentioned earlier, yoi. Do you want to search the ships  later ?” Marco inquired.

Jason  nodded his head, “ No doubt . As soon as they’re back, I want to check them out. Since they aren’t here though,  I would  actually like some space to think and be alone while you are being so accommodating. I was thinking that storage space on the upper deck would be ideal. It gives me a full view of the ship. ”

Marco folded his arms and nodded his head in understanding,  “ We can arrange that, yoi.”

Jason shoved his hands into the pockets of the makeshift clothes that he was currently wearing, “Before that though, could I get my clothes back?”

Marco  glanced over to Izo and gestured for him to come over before speaking, “Your clothes were slightly damaged from the storm, but  Haruta sewed them up like new. Izo here will take you to them and we’ll stay here. All the weapons we found on you are also with your clothes and you’re free to take them with you as well, yoi.” 

Jason shot a s k eptical look at the blonde commander, “I can have my weapons back?”

Unfolding his arms to rest them on his hips , Marco smirked “Kid, we are the Whitebeard pirates. If we couldn’t handle one boy armed to the teeth on our home turf, we wouldn’t be that notorious now would we,” his comments looked like they threw Jason off and his guard visibly went up and Marco realized his attempt at a joke may not have landed well. “Sorry if that came across wrong,” he apologized,  “ We just want you to feel safe and figured that you would want your weapons back on a ship filled with strangers.” 

Jason’s shoulders untensed a little , “Whatever your reason is, thank you… But don’t call me a fucking kid,” Marco followed his finger as Jason pointed towards Thatch, “I literally told you and Hatch over there that earlier. It pisses me off.”

Thatch looked offended, “The name is Thatch, you punk.”

Marco chuckled as the boy waved the resident cook off, “Yeah, whatever pompadour. I don’t really do names so you’re  gonna have to deal with it.” 

Before he could get riled up and defend his honor, Izo placed a hand on Thatch’s shoulder, “Don’t be a child Thatch. The boy is on a foreign ship with strangers and missing his sister, let it go for now.” Thatch  pursed his lips and crossed his arms, pouting in silence as Izo moved towards Jason. Marco could see the boy tense as Izo got closer and then a look of relief mixed with  bewilderment when he walked right by him. Izo beckoned the scared boy to follow, “This way Jason. Follow at your own pace.” Taking one more look at him and Thatch, Marco watched as the  black haired kid tried to decide whether this was a trap and then ultimately decided to follow their fellow commander. 

Once the two were out of site, Thatch walked over to Marco and sighed, “That Jason boy sure seems troubled . Do you really think we can get through to him? Sure, we got through to Ace…”

Marco  grabbed Thatch’s shoulder and cut  him off , “A LOT of our brothers were the same way. Pops is always taking in lost and troubled souls who need a home, Jason is no different. It’s his first night here, give him some time.”

Thatch looked up at the sky and smiled and Marco knew that he was recalling how some of their brothers came to be a part of their family. A comfortable silence settled between the two commanders for some time before Thatch spoke again, “I’m going to make something for Jason to eat. I know he hasn’t eaten in while and there’s nothing better than a freshly prepared and personalized meal from yours truly.”  With a new sparkle in his eye turned towards the kitchen, “I don’t think the kid likes me yet, so come by and grab the food in roughly thirty minutes,” Marco nodded his head and Thatch grinned and continued his journey forward. 

Alone on the deck now, Marco took a deep breath. Izo and Jason wouldn’t take too long to get back, but he decided to quickly gather some things to put in the storage room to make it more comfortable. A blanket, a lamp, maybe some books and paper so that he woul d  be more comfortable.  It didn’t take him long to  amass the items he needed and lay them out in Jason’s makeshift room. By the time he returned to his spot on the deck, Izo and Jason, now visibly more comfortable in his own clothes and equipped with his extensive weapons collection, were waiting for him. Jason walked up to him with his hands in his pockets and his cheeks turned a bright shade of red. Without looking him in the eyes, Jason choked on his words, “Thank you for, uh, taking care of me when you guys fished me out of the water.” 

Marco was taken aback for all but a minute for realization hit him, “Of course. Any respectable doctor treats their patient  with proper respect and care, yoi.” 

Jason muttered under his breath and he just barely managed to hear him say “Not any doctors I’ve met”. 

Pretending not to hear his mutterings, Marco remained quiet and waited for the boy to speak. Sure enough, after the boy’s face returned to  it’s normal  shade, he squared up so that his eyes met with Marco’s sleepy gaze. “I’m going to go lay down now. I have a lot to think about and  I’ve had enough fun for one day.” 

“I set the storage room up while you were away so that it would be more comfortable. If you need anything else, just find whoever’s on watch or come find me or Izo. We showed you where our rooms were earlier, yoi.”

Jason scoffed, “Yeah, I woke up in your room remember. I know where it is,” and with that Jason cautiously walked away. 

Izo sauntered up next to the first division commander, “That boy is  going to take a while to warm up to us Marco. I don’t think he’ll be violent like Ace was at first but,”

An amused laugh escaped Marco’s lips, “Both you and Thatch compared Jason to Ace. If he turns out anything like Ace, we’re  gonna be in for a ride, yoi.” 

Izo rolled his eyes, “I sure hope not. Those months he spent trying to kill Pops were exhausting.”

“I guess time w i ll  tell , yoi.” The two commanders stood and talked for a little while and  after enough time had passed, Marco went to the kitchen to grab whatever Thatch has cooked up. The kitchen was filled with intense savory aromas. 

“Oh, in the nick of time! The soup just finished simmering and I would hate for anything to get cold,” a tray with some freshly warmed bread, something akin to a meat stew and a side of vegetables was enthusiastically thrust toward Marco. 

“You really outdid yourself so last minute Thatch.”

A loud and boisterous laugh rang throughout the mess hall as Thatch rubbed the back of his head, “Of course, I am the head chef after all,” the brown haired man started shooing the blonde away, “As much as I’d love to talk, get going man. The kid needs to eat .”

Making sure the tray didn’t spill, Marco wandered towards the door, “Don’t worry, I ’ m going , yoi .” Marco heard Thatch yell  _ All your least favorite dishes will be on the menu if something happens to that food bird boy _ _ _ as he closed the door behind him. The walk to the storage room wasn’t far and the steam from the stew was starting to make him hungry. Once he got to the door he went to  knock, but stopped when he heard muted sniffling from behind the door. 

Marco refrained from knocking and decided to leave the food by the door. Thatch would understand. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Jason squinted his eyes as the sun began to peak through  one of the two window s that w ere in the storage room. He had spent most of the night crying, which he would never admit to anyone and hated everything. His sister was MIA, he was stuck on a pirate ship and not just any ship but the fucking Whitebeard Pirates ship. The best thing that’s happened since he woke up in this hellhole was getting his clothes and weapons back. 

He should really get up and walk around. The night felt like it lasted an eternity and at one point he had gone outside to peak at the stars, they always brought him comfort. There was a tray of food outside the door and he couldn’t help but be suspicious. They may have been oddly nice so far, but that didn’t mean it was safe to eat food yet. Letting his paranoia get the best of him, Jason left the food untouched by the door and then spent the rest of the night fading in and out of consciousness with his back towards the wall and watched the door. 

The sound of laughter and footsteps started to come from the lower deck.  Everyone was probably waking up now. Opening the window to peak down below, Jason plugged his nose and gagged at the scent of food that drifted in the air. Ugh. It must be breakfast time too. 

His stomach growled and Jason winced.  Stupid stomach. He’s been a lot hungrier than this before, there’s no way he would give in to temptation so early. As he sat there trying to convince himself that he didn’t need to eat, a soft knock came at the door. 

Jason froze. 

Who was at the door? 

The person behind the door knocked again, this time a little louder. Jason  reached to his lower back and placed a hand on one of his knives. As he prepared to pull the weapon out he heard a soft, yet firm voice through the  door , “Jason? You awake?”

Recognizing the voice, Jason clicked the knife back in place and snuck to the door, guard still up. He grabbed the  door knob and turned, peeking through the crack. The man on the other side startled a little, but recovered quickly with a smile,  “ Good morning! Would you come join us for food?” Izo inquired. 

Jason bit his lip and preemptively punched his stomach as he felt a growl manifesting at the mention of food. Hesitantly he replied, “I’m not hungry, but I was thinking about coming outside anyway for fresh air. I’ll be out in a little bit.” 

“Okay, I’m sure you can hear and see everything from the window. Our brothers can be quite loud,” Izo laughed under his breath, “I’m sure a familiar face will make you more comfortable , I’ll be in the mess hall when you’re ready.” W ith that, Izo waved goodbye and headed back down to the main deck. Jason watched as Izo walked away and then slowly closed the door once more when he was out of sight. 

This whole situation was so bizarre. He didn’t understand why the Whitebeards insisted on making him feel comfortable and hadn’t just killed him or forced him to work for them. It  wasn’t like he was special, just a fighter. If anything, his sister was more valuable than himself because of her devil fruit. It seemed like they knew him from somewhere and if that was the case they must have known about Lea to some degree since they always travelled together. She was in bird form a lot though, so maybe not as much. 

Whatever the case, neither him or Lea had met a single good pirate since they left their home island and he was having a hard time believing these pirates were any different. He needed to see what he was dealing with now that it was daytime. Jason patted himself down, making sure every weapon was in its place for easy access in case shit hit the deck. Feel ing confident but weary, Jason made his way down to the deck.

This was a nightmare. 

Seeing everyone from the window was far different from  actually being in the thick of the crowd on deck and Jason felt like he was suffocating. Pirates were everywhere, laughing and joking while hanging  off of each other. A couple of giant men wrestled by the railing. A bunch of men sat around telling jokes while another gaggle had a morning drinking competition. Jason wasn’t used to being around so many people. Lea always wanted to go and hang out in the towns, but he had insisted every time that they lay low. His sister always pouted but he didn’t care because he was making sure they would be safe. 

Izo said he would be in the mess hall, so Jason pushed past another couple of wrestlers hoping it would be calmer inside. 

It wasn’t. 

There weren’t any wrestlers in the mess hall, but it was loud and crowded. The tables were  packed and the smell of food was far worse inside. Most of the crew inside were just talking amongst themselves, but Jason spotted a few card games going on. Hiding the  fact he was overwhelmed, he scanned the room and was relieved to see Izo waving at him from the far end of the room at the countertop. 

Jason made a  bee-line for the only family face in the crowd and thought about smiling for half a second, until a pompadour entered into his line of sight and instead opted for an unimpressed frown. 

Thatch was the first one to speak, “Good morning! We were starting to think you wouldn’t make it out here for breakfast.”

Jason’s face went blank as he yawned and looked the other way, “If I’d known you would be  one of the first  faces I saw this morning I would have stayed in bed.”

Grin faltering, Thatch looked mildly shocked, “Ouch man, you aren’t still mad about last  night are you? I even made you food as a token of our newfound  brohood .”

“I was wondering who left that food by the door. Yeah, I didn’t eat it . I actually made some friends with the birds last night who found it tasty though, I wasn’t really hungry,” Jason watched in amusement as the cook looked as if he was about to implode.

Thatch didn’t say anything else to Jason, rather he mumbled to himself like he was lost in thought.  Numerous emotions of exasperation and frustration flitting about as he ranted to himself.  _ Stupid bird, not relaying my message. My food got cold AND fed to birds.  _

The scene almost made Jason laugh, but Izo started talking and he chose to focus on him instead, “Thatch has the best of intentions and isn’t as bad as you think he is.”

Jason shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t think he’s bad, he kept calling me kid and that pissed me off. I just wanted to mess with him. Honestly though, I don’t know what to think of anyone or anything yet. I’ve been here for one, almost two days  actually being awake. I don’t really trust anyone here, especially that rat boy who headbutt me.”

Izo let out a hearty laugh, his whole body shaking, “You must mean Ace. I heard about that.  You two will have to sort that little debacle out yourselves, but I’m sure you’ll come to see that Ace is a good kid as well.”

Jason wanted to refute and give all the reasons that were totally reasonable as to why he didn’t think he could get alone with the boy he had met all of one time, but was cut off by loud cheering and the sound of an even louder and obnoxious bell. Everyone in the mess hall got up and ran outside, leaving their plates and what was left of their food behind. With eyes wide, Jason turned to Izo, “What on earth…”

Izo started moving towards the door as well and answered Jason’s broken inquiry, “It looks like the others have returned,” and with that the man continued to the door.

Hesistantly , Jason followed. Out on the deck, he couldn’t help but wonder how on the Gods great sea this ship could hold so many rowdy pirates. He thought he’d be squished like a sardine but there was still plenty of space to move about despite there being bodies everywhere. Maybe it was because he was next to Izo since everyone seemed to get out of his way as the commander moved through the crowd. Jason wanted to ask where Izo was leading him, but he didn’t have time. Before he knew it, they were at the side of the ship looking out towards the sea . 

Izo pointed his kimonoed arm out over the railing for Jason to follow and was met with a sight that not only enraged  him, but froze him in place. A giant ship,  similar to the one he was on was sailing towards them with a smaller ship leading the way. The tiny ship was powered by a single person and sailed in front of the whale ship and Jason would recognize that pompous fire brat anywhere. Jason didn’t like him purely out of spite and Lea would have kicked him for it if she were here. 

He didn’t have too long to sit and think about how much he hated Ace though because the man standing on the other ship drew far more attention. The man was larger than anyone that Jason had ever seen. He stood tall and even from this distance Jason could tell that he had power that he couldn’t even fathom. This was the man he was afraid to see and all he wanted to do was run. 

As his brain went into full fight or flight mode, Jason heard Izo  proudly announce, “Pops is home, I’m sure he’ll be excited to meet you finally.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this update took so long. Depression is a bitch. Also, the Whitebeard/Jason chapters take longer to write because my brother has to approve of all his characters thoughts and actions towards what's happening lol He's very picky xD  
These chapters keep getting longer.... I'm sorry for the inconsistency but it'll probably keep happening. I just get more excited each time I write.  
Comments are always appreciated and i apologize if anything ever doesn't make sense.

**Author's Note:**

> This first chapter is from the brothers point of view and he has a tendency to forget names or purposely call people the wrong name to piss them off.  
Figured I would put this here just in case anyone gets confused xD


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